Editor-in-chief of the Tekhnalogiya publishing house Dzmitry Sanko has been detained again in Belarus, Nasha Niva reports. He was previously detained in February but not arrested. According to the outlet, this time the case may involve criminal charges.
Dzmitry Sanko is a Candidate of Biological Sciences, a linguist and one of the founders of the Francišak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society. He headed the Tekhnalogiya publishing house for more than 30 years; the company suspended its operations after the February arrests. He will turn 76 on March 31.
In February, security forces carried out mass detentions of publishers and book distributors in Minsk, and on March 3 the KGB designated as an “extremist formation” the “Coalition of Printing Publishers ‘Fond Kamunikat.org’, Lohvinau Publishing House, Andrei Yanushkevich Publishing”. Those said to be involved in the “formation” include Yaraslau Ivaniuk, Dzmitry Kolas, Ihar Lohvinau, Vaclau Bahdanovich, Andrei Yanushkevich, Aliaksandr Eudakha.
It was reported today that book distributor Aliaksandr Eudakha has been released from the KGB pre-trial detention center, while publisher Vaclau Bahdanovich has been released from a temporary detention facility. Translator and publisher Zmitser Kolas remains in custody.
The Tekhnalogiya research and production cooperative was founded in 1988 and became the first private publishing house in Belarus. Its main areas of activity include book publishing (academic, popular science, reference, and literary works in various languages), printing (production of books, brochures, forms, booklets, leaflets, and calendars), and the supply of medical equipment.
